Anton Lauer, Police Reserve Battalion 9.
Quoted in 'The Good Old Days' - E. Klee, W. Dressen, V. Riess, The Free
Press, NY, 1988, p. 73:
There were two gas-vans in use. I saw them myself.
They were driven into the prison yard and the Jews--men, women and children--had
to get into the van directly from the cell. I also saw the inside of
the gas-vans. They were lined with metal and there was a wooden grille
on the floor. The exhaust gases were fed into the inside of the van.
I can still today hear the Jews knocking and shouting 'Dear Germans,
let us out'.
SS-man Theodor Malzmueller on the Chelmno extermination
camp.
Quoted in 'The Good Old Days' - E. Klee, W. Dressen, V. Riess, The Free
Press, NY, 1988., p. 217-219:
When we arrived we had to report to the camp commandant,
SS-Hauptsturmführer Bothmann. The SS-Haupsturmführer addressed
us in his living quarters, in the presence of SS-Untersturmführer
Albert Plate. He explained that we had been dedicated to the Kulmhof
[Chelmno] extermination camp as guards and added that in this camp the
plague boils of humanity, the Jews, were exterminated. We were to keep
quiet about everything we saw or heard, otherwise we would have to reckon
with our families' imprisonment and the death penalty...
The extermination camp was made up of the so-called
"castle" and the camp in the woods. The castle was a fairly
large stone building at the edge of the village of Kulmhof. It was there
that the Jews who had been transported by lorry or railway were first
brought...
When a lorry arrived the following members of the
SS-Sonderkommando addressed the Jews: (1) camp commandant Bothmann,
(2) Untersturmführer Albert Plate from North Germany, (3) Polizei-Meister
Willy Lenz from Silesia, (4) Polizei-Meister Alois Haeberle from Wuerttenberg.
They explained to the Jews that they would first of all be given a bath
and deloused in Kulmhof and then sent to Germany to work. The Jews then
went inside the castle. There they had to get undressed. After this
they were sent through a passage-way on to a ramp to the castle yard
where the so-called "gas-van" was parked. The back door of
the van would be open. The Jews were made to get inside the van. This
job was done by three Poles, who I believe were sentenced to death.
The Poles hit the Jews with whips if they did not get into the gas vans
fast enough. When all the Jews were inside the door was bolted. The
driver then switched on the engine, crawled under the van and connected
a pipe from the exhaust to the inside of the van. The exhaust fumes
now poured into the inside of the truck so that the people inside were
suffocated....
Testimony of gas-van driver Walter Burmeister.
Quoted in 'The Good Old Days' - E. Klee, W. Dressen, V. Riess, The Free
Press, NY, 1988., p. 219-220:
As soon as the ramp had been erected in the castle,
people started arriving in Kulmhof from Lizmannstadt in lorries... The
people were told that they had to take a bath, that their clothes had
to be disinfected and that they could hand in any valuable items beforehand
to be registered....
When they had undressed they were sent to the cellar
of the castle and then along a passageway on to the ramp and from there
into the gas-van. In the castle there were signs marked "to the
baths". The gas vans were large vans, about 4-5 meters long, 2.2
meter wide and 2 meter high. The interior walls were lined with sheet
metal. On the floor there was a wooden grille. The floor of the van
had an opening which could be connected to the exhaust by means of a
removable metal pipe. When the lorries were full of people the double
doors at the back were closed and the exhaust connected to the interior
of the van....
The Kommando member detailed as driver would start
the engine right away so that the people inside the lorry were suffocated
by the exhaust gases. Once this had taken place, the union between the
exhaust and the inside of the lorry was disconnected and the van was
driven to the camp in the woods were the bodies were unloaded. In the
early days they were initially burned in mass graves, later incinerated...
I then drove the van back to the castle and parked it there. Here it
would be cleaned of the excretions of the people that had died in it.
Afterwards it would once again be used for gassing.... I can no longer
say what I thought at the time or whether I thought of anything at all.
I can also no longer say today whether I was too influenced by the propaganda
of the time to have refused to have carried out the orders I had been
given.
From the interrogation of Adolf Eichmann.
Quoted in 'The Good Old Days' - E. Klee, W. Dressen, V. Riess, The Free
Press, NY, 1988., p. 221-222:
A. I just know the following, that I only saw the
following: a room, if I still recall correctly, perhaps five times as
big as this one, or it may have been four times as big. There were Jews
inside it, they had to get undressed and then a van, completely sealed,
drew up to the ramp in front of the entrance. The naked Jews then had
to get inside. Then the lorry was closed and it drove off.
Q. How many people did the van hold?
A. I can't say exactly. I couldn't bring myself to
look closely, even once. I didn't look inside the entire time. I couldn't,
no, I couldn't take any more. The screaming and, and, I was too upset
and so on. I also said that to [SS-Obergruppenfuehrer] Mueller when
I submitted my report. He did not get much from my report. I then followed
the van - I must have been with some of the people from there who knew
the way. Then I saw the most horrifying thing I have ever seen in my
entire life.
The van drove up to a long trench, the door was opened
and bodies thrown out. They still seemed alive, their limbs were so
supple. They were thrown in, I can still remember a civilian pulling
out teeth with some pliers and then I just got the hell out of there.
I got into the car, went off and did not say anything else... I'd had
more than I could take. I only know that a doctor there in a white coat
said to me that I should look through a peep-hole at them in the lorry.
I refused to do that. I could not, I could not say anything, I had to
get away.
I went to Berlin, reported to Gruppenführer Mueller.
I told him exactly what I've just said, there wasn't any more I could
tell him... terrible...I'm telling you... the inferno, can't, that is,
I can't take this, I said to him.